Can You Help Rescue this Bush?

Hi folks,

I visited my mother's house recently. She has a lovely garden. Unfortunately, one of the centrepieces seems to be either dying or ravaged by some sort of blight. I'll attach a few pictures.

Can anyone hazard a guess as to what it could be and possible remedies? We'd like to rescue it, of course.

Many thanks.

 

When did the damage occur? Did it suddenly appear or has it gradually got worse?

 

Difficult to say what's causing that but I think its unlikely to ever green up again.

Looks like some kind of dwarf conifer.

 

I agree too. Unfortunately, many conifers don't come back from brown wood.
All you can do is carefully trim away the dead stuff, without going back too far, and new growth might and I stress might, sprout from beside those pieces. It's a bit of a stretch, but it depends how keen you are to try and save it. If there's no improvement over the next month or two, it might be best to just replace it.

They can become dehydrated, and therefore start to die back, if they go short of rain/moisture at the roots, but the damage isn't always seen until it's too late. They're largely very shallow rooting, so regular moisture is important.

 

I had a conifer like that which was in a bit of a sad state when I moved here. A combination of wind, heat, lack of rain and poor soil can cause browning. I don't think it's a pest or disease. It may recover if you can improve the soil with plenty of organic matter, keep it well watered and don't let the soil dry out. Mine did improve but after a while I removed it as the center was almost entirely brown, with just green tips. If yours looks brown in the centre too, I'd remove it.

 

Ah. That's what my mother suspects, too. Given that 2024 was one of the wettest winters on record, any lack of moisture might predate that. She said the soil layer is quite thin and there is quite a bit of rubble beneath the soil layer, so the choices as to what to grow are limited. I didn't know that conifers have quite shallow roots. Thanks everyone for weighing in. I'll have another closer look at its centre when I next visit to see if the brown dryness has reached the core. If so, we'll just have to bite the bullet and replace it.

 

Think it might be one of the dwarf thuja and depending on the cultivar, some are very slow growing, so might take a long time to show any improvement. If it isn't very recent damage then it would have likely shown some recovery by now, so you might have to get in really close.

 

All confers of this type are brown inside, its why you cant cut them back hard, they are only green on the outside even if healthy.

 

I thought it might have been a Thuja which stays green inside and can be cut back, but on looking again, I don’t think it is .

 

Your plant is a dwarf conifer. It looks like draught damage. Unfortunately they do not regrow from brown. You could try giving it a light trim, removing any brown tips and keep it well watered for a few months. If it continues to die off it will need to be replaced.

 

If pruned down to brown wood in my experience they never produce green shoots.